Darius
Personality He is a man torn between duty and friendship as it is difficult for him to choose one over the other. Story Darius is born with a minor noble lineage and was given up for adoption when he was a child. He was raised by a merchant family and only returned to his true lineage when his siblings were taken by illness. The surrounding nobles were dissatisfied with his lower class upbringing and ostracized him badly for it. His lone friend is Earnest, who treated him as his younger brother while they were training to be officers. An established member of the military, he is able to restore some honor to his family name. In one story path, Wylfred first sees Darius as the leader of a band of mercenaries. Their first mission is to deliver supplies for the Camille rebels. When they arrive, however, Darius privately confides in Wylfred that the Villnorian officer Gandar orders him to betray Camille rebels, and that their other order is to assassinate the rebel leader, Natalia. Earnest, who wanted to reminisce with his friend, overhears this and demands for an explanation. Momentarily lost to his rage, he accuses his friend for caring too much about his lowly status. Though he apologizes for the accidental slip, Darius kills his friend. After he and his men deliver the same fate to Natalia, Darius draws his sword to stab himself in repentance for his sin. Wylfred punches him to his senses, telling the man to live for what he has done. Gwendal bluntly states that if really didn't want to do it, he could have just refused the order. Feeling too disillusioned by his home, he continues to travel with Wylfred. Darius appears once more as a seemingly heartless enemy in the hardest path. Earnest brings Wylfred to him and he states that he has orders from Villnore to assassinate Natalia. Faced with conflicting interests, the two friends clash and Darius is subdued. Earnest pleads him to join arms but, as he is tied to duty, Darius asks for his friend's forgiveness and takes his own life. Battle As a member of the Swordsman class, Darius has a movement range of range of four panels and an attack range of one panel (including diagonal panels). Swordsmen use one-handed swords (light swords) as their weapon and have access to heavy equipment such as helmets, armor, gauntlets, and greaves. In comparison to the other two story-mode warriors, he has the lowest damage output and his multi-hit attacks are fewer in hits than Mireille. His stand-out point is his ability to juggle the enemy in the air, making it extremely easy for the participating party in a team attack to acquire Shining Crystals as well as his ability to keep the enemy down to aquire Puple Gems and Shining Gems. The trade-off is that he is a bit harder to use effectively because his attacks are harder to time. His Soul Crush is the best among story-mode swordsmen because it has the highest Attack Gauge Boost and inflicts roughly the same amount of damage as Wylfred's Vengeance Edge. Darius is best suited for Attack Guage Boost and juggling enemies to obtain Shiing Crystals. Attacks *'Ascender' - Lifting slice from below. Launches enemy upward. :レイアップソード/Layup Sword :Hits: 2 :Attack Gauge Boost: 6+8 *'Descender' - Precipitous slash from above. Casts enemy down. :レイダウンソード/Lay-down Sword :Hits: 1 :Attack Gauge Boost: 18 *'Resonator' - Powerful piercing thrust. Knocks enemy back :レゾネイトペイン/Resonate Pain :Hits: 4 :Attack Gauge Boost: 4x4hit Soul Crush 300px "With what life I have left. Finishing Strike! Icy Grave!" Darius begins the attack with a thrust that freezes the enemy in place in an icicle coffin and then follows up with a furious multi-hit sword attack from behind. With a final powerful thrust of his sword, Darius shatters the coffin. *'Icy Grave' - Buries its prey in a coffin of frost before rapid strikes carve the shards asunder. :アイシクル・グレイヴ/Icicle Grave :Hits: 18 :Attack Gauge Boost: 3x18hit Destiny Plume *'Baldr's Pact ' - Negates damage to self and inflicts double on enemy. Cannot be compounded. :バルドルの契約/Baldr no Keiyaku :AP Cost: 80 :Rounds Effective: 2 :Range: User Trivia *'Truthade Profile': :Although dull and dour nowadays, in his heyday Darius was pretty quick with the zingers. In fact, his entire friendship with Earnest was built upon their natural funny man/straight man dynamic. The comic duo even auditioned for Talent Night at the Officers Academy. Their act consisted of two zany merchants and a Yamato prop called an 'abacus". Alas, it was not meant to be. *Recruiting Darius (and Gwendal) forgoes the recruitment of Earnest and Natalia or Heugoe, Mischka and Mireille. *Darius attacks are all inherited from the generic swordsman class of Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. They were renamed in the NA and PAL releases of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. Ascender was Ascending Sword, Descender was Descending Sword, and Resonator was Resonating Pain. Darius shares the trait of inheriting all his skills with Cheripha and Mischka. Gallery Darius.png|Darius concept art Category:Character Category:Male Category:Swordsman Category:Covenant of the Plume